Writing, press management, reporting results, designing, editing videos, taking photos, producing events, coordinating panels, researching and advising internal and external clients, working fast and error-free, having (dozens of) meetings...
At some point, it became commonplace to ask corporate communications professionals to take on tasks that once involved different roles (and people). This is due to both cultural and economic reasons, and is such an interesting topic that it deserves an article in itself. We'll leave it noted 🤓.
For now, let's focus on the practical: we are going to show you some free and valuable tools for corporate communications professionals. We hope you find them useful, and that they save you time - take note!
Journalist Studio Google See site
Language: English
Price: free
It is a set of tools generated by Google for journalists. Although its focus is on media journalists, who write reports and do research, several of the features developed can be useful for corporate journalists, such as automatic transcription from any audio and/or video source, or transform to text and share your handwritten notes, or convert scanned PDF tables to Excel tables, little wonders of that kind. You can see here the detail of the functionalities.
The good news is that it is a free service. The bad news is that access is by invitation only. If you are interested, you can apply here.
Storyline See site
Language: English
Price: free
Do you have to prepare a presentation based on data you have in Excel? They give you the numbers and ask you to "write the story"? Then import your Excel data into Google Sheets and let Storyline build the story for you. It does this through a series of cards that explain details about the most interesting points in your data, and, more importantly, it rehearses explanations about the links between them, establishing cause and effect relationships. If you normally work with data, this tool can make your life easier and happier.
Map Checking See site
Language: English
Price: free of charge
If you have to calculate how many people will fit in your next event and you don't want to leave your destiny in the hands of the "ojimeter", Map Checking can help you. Just locate on the map the place where you plan to hold the event, mark the area by clicking on each point, and choose whether you want to calculate a light, crowded or packed event. The software will give you the number of attendees (i.e. how many people will fit in the space you have delimited) according to the parameter you have chosen. Great.
TiniWow See site
Language: English
Price: free of charge
Do whatever you can think of with PDF, without viruses or ads. Transform from any format to PDF and convert from PDF to any format. Translate your file, incorporate hyperlinks, split it, reorder it, erase watermarks, whatever you want. More than 50 functionalities at your disposal.
Otter See site
Language: English
Price: free basic plan
Let Otter, a virtual assistant, take notes of your meetings, summarize what was discussed and report agreements and commitments to participants. The free version works with the world's leading corporate email clients (Google and Microsoft, among others), and offers a maximum of 300 meeting transcripts per month, which must be no longer than 30 minutes.
We will be in permanent search of this kind of tools, the most useful, hopefully free and specific in their function. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay connected!
